


she's got light on her face

by shellsinsand



Series: the consequences of light [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen, Post-Kannabi Bridge Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 22:09:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17886044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shellsinsand/pseuds/shellsinsand
Summary: Rin, after





	she's got light on her face

**Author's Note:**

> title from rescue by yuna

**i.**

The adrenaline comes to her in the days after they return. In the moment it had felt simple: triage Kakashi’s eye; dig Obito out of the rubble; blow the bridge pylons. Survive, survive, survive. She’d learned a long time ago how to keep her head in a crisis. Now, she catches her hands shaking as she unscrews jars and folds her laundry. Her skin itches from rock dust and blood she’s long since washed off. _We survived_ , she thinks, _this too will pass._

**ii.**

It’s not that the boys hadn’t respected her before so much as neither of them understood a damn thing about medical ninjutsu. Rin’s an average field chunin: good at her core ninjutsu, middle of the road taijutsu, and genjutsu skills that aren’t worth mentioning. They’d treated her as such, and she was comfortable in the praise of the hospital staff and Mizuki-sama’s stern satisfaction with her progress. None of it was a problem until she was tied up in a cave, enemy nin leering over her, and Kakashi and Obito busting in like something out of a novel. The memory of having to be cut out of the ropes by someone else burns in a way she hadn’t expected.

**iii.**

She doesn’t ask what happened before the rescue. Whatever it is has Kakashi retreating, studying them both like there’s a test he’s going to have to pass, and Obito pushing like he doesn’t know how to stop. Tragically, she’s so used to their nonsense that it’s a refreshing twist on an old pattern.

“Obito,” she says, when she estimates they’re a minute away from Obito’s rage overwhelming his Uchiha manners and the resulting katon in the library. He doesn’t look away from trying to burn a hole in the side of Kakashi’s face. “Let’s go see if there are any more reference texts on Mist’s native herbs.” Nothing. She sighs and stands up, kicking Kakashi’s shin in the process because he deserves it.  He blinks up at her and yawns.

“Careful, Rin-chan, you almost tripped,” he says, perfectly bland. She rolls her eyes and grabs Obito by the sleeve. Whatever is in Sensei’s message better be good, because it’s doing terrible things to her blood pressure.

**iv.**

The good news about (briefly) being a POW is that Obito stops acting like she’s somehow above the ugliness of their chosen profession. She still catches him looking sometimes, but he’s sheepish about it – all spread hands and half smiles. They don’t talk about it. She mentions the whole thing to Hana when they’re on shift together – contagious diseases, ugh – and she nearly falls over laughing.

“Rin, honey,” she says, hiccupping a little, “You gotta know that being a little bit in love with you is basically a rite of passage. Give those boys a break.” _What?_

“What?” she says, perplexed. Sure, she’s nice and perfectly fine looking when she’s not wearing scrubs but – _really?_ Also – “ _Boys?_ ”

Hana just snickers.

**v.**

“Rin-chan!” Kushina hugs like it’s a whole body event – warm and aggressive – and she sinks into it. Sometime during the second year of the war, Rin had learned to put aside her active worry for everyone she loved, but the relief she feels when someone comes home is still immediate and overwhelming. “My girl,” Kushina says, in a way that’s always made Rin think the Uzumaki clan was matriarchal in practice if not in name. “How are the other brats? Minato told me all about your mission.”

“Probably doing something _stupid_ ,” she says, because she’s mostly given up on figuring out how Kushina and Sensei talk so often. (Sensei’s too responsible to be using the Hiraishin all the time no matter what Kakashi says.) Kushina laughs and strokes her hair. “They’re friends now but too ridiculous to admit it. Somehow it’s _worse_.”

“No it’s not,” Kushina says, and Rin has to hide her grin in her shoulder, “But I’ll buy you lunch anyway. I need dirt on Minato.”

**vi.**

Rin, more than anything, has always taken pride in being practical. So when Kakashi looks at her and admits he had wanted to leave her for dead she doesn’t let herself flinch. What’s more important: the ends or the means? The boy in front of her who smiles at them sometimes, small and pleased, or who he was six weeks ago? She’s here – sweating in the midday sun – and the hurt isn’t as sharp as it could be. They have to believe they’re more than the worst things they’ve done.

“We’re a team,” Obito says like he’s trying to prove something. Maybe they all are. She tips her head back and laughs, lets the light wash her clean.

**vii.**

“I want to work on my ninjutsu more,” she tells Sensei after one of their team dinners. He’s still threatening to make the boys start paying if they don’t stop eating him out of house and home, so Kakashi and Obito are long gone by the time the bill arrives.

“Why?” He asks, putting the receipt back on the table and focusing on her. It’s a lot, having the entirety of the Yellow Flash’s attention, even if he’s carted you out of countless embarrassing situations over the years. But Sensei, by whatever influence or quirk of his personality, has never pushed her toward focusing in medical ninjutsu nor sneered at her for choosing to. All of Rin’s careful logic flees.

“I…” She frowns. Before the war she thought she would wind up posted to the hospital; chakra mapping and monitoring had held almost all of her attention and she was _good_ at it. That’s still an option if she’s a liability – why doesn’t she want to take it? They’re chunin. Technically, the only thing holding their team together is precedent. “I thought I wanted to be a doctor – I still do one day. But…” She can see the blood on her hands, shoving Obito’s femur back into his leg, and feel the steady thump of her heart. “I can bring people home alive too,” she says, and looks up to see Sensei’s grin. “That’s worth doing.”

**viii.**

Rin has never wanted to be famous, so when the villagers decide she was nothing more than backup on the Bridge she’s honestly grateful. The boys try to protest when they hear people talking about it, but Rin doesn’t want to be the next Tsunade. She’s spent enough time around legends to know even they wake up hungover and cranky the next morning. Obito and Kakashi are going to be larger than life one day and she’ll stand in their shadow – nothing more than a steady pair of hands and a practical heart, doing what needs to be done.


End file.
